Wed Apr 26, 2006 at 11:43:54 AM PDT

What's a poor partisan hack like Drudge to do with his idols running the country and Iraq into the ground? Aha! Claim that some book isn't doing so hot.

Left-leaning new media has hit turbulence at the marketplace, newly released stats show.

A book hyped by major media as documenting a progressive revolution of "blogs" and political power, DAILY KOS 'CRASHING THE GATE,' has sold only 3,630 copies since its release last month, according to NIELSEN's BOOKSCAN.

[NIELSEN claims only 2,062 copies of DAILY KOS have been purchased at the retail level; the rest coming through 'discount' outlets.]

Bookscan just surveys a sampling of big box retailers, so it's not a complete market analysis. Merely a snapshot of major retailers (and not even all of them). And it absolutely fails to capture online sales.

So let's see. The book has been out three weeks. It has sold 5,100 copies of the special edition and 3,630 according to Drudge (if he can be trusted) in a sampling of the big box bookstores.

That's 8,730 right there. Now throw in the indy bookstores (we've probably sold close to 1,000 just in the book signing events I've attended), and we're getting close to 10,000.

Then there's the online retailers. Currently, CTG is ranked #25 on Amazon.com, and is ranked #5 in the politics category. Through the links at the top of the this page alone I've sold 700 copies of CTG.

So to recap -- top ranking on Amazon, over 10,000 copies sold in three weeks the book has been out. Distributors have ordered 50,000 copies of the book, which has gone through three printings already (our small publisher can't afford to do large first printings). And we're just halfway through our book tour.

And this is somehow supposed to be a failure?

Like I said, pity poor Drudge. He has really resorted to grasping at straws. The Right has so little going for it, that it's been reduced to desperately wishing this book fails.

Unfortunately for Markos, I have not read Crashing the Gate, yet, because I had 500 pages of Cobra II to get through, and the new Godfather PC game is captivating. But it will get read.No matter.

Drudge, as usual, is just being a jealous bitch when whining about this. For a book by two guys unknown to the national media, remember, nearly every book on politics is written by someone in the MSM or national politics. Then there is no buyback program for liberal books, like Regnery can shove out all those hateful Republican screeds like they were interesting.

So any success they have is pretty amazing. Unlike Drudge, who even had a TV show.